Good evening everyone. Sorry for being late, after supper chores to do. First off, I would like to acknowledge and thank Alex Colwell for the references and history of the British American Oil Co., and his wonderfull web site.If it were not for him, this would not be possible. Also a huge thanks to Doc for the awsome banner, a wonderfull talent he has. I will start off with some history of the B/A company, and do a section every night or so, as to not get too drawn out and boring. Along with that, I will post pictures, mostly from my collection which consists mostly items etc. from the 1940's to 1969. Anyone else who has any photos or history,please feel free to post anytime. Now that that is out of the way, here we go. In 1906, 29 year old Albert Ellsworth, a native of Welland Ontario, founded the British American Oil Co. Previous to that, Albert spent 9 years working at Standard Oil's Acme, Buffalo Refinery. Albert acted as the Secretary-Treasurer for the company, and a man by the name of S.R. Parson was the first President of B/A. The name of British American Oil came about being organized with a province of Ontario Charter dated Oct.17, 1906, under the British Authority of King Edward VII, so it was a British Company as Canada was still under the British Reign. American Petroleum products were the standard measure around the world, so it was a British company, with American standards in Canada, hense the name. I think I will stop there for now, and continue later. I will see if I can post a few pictures of some signs.

[This message has been edited by Ken Bird (edited 05-01-2007).]

[This message has been edited by Ken Bird (edited 05-02-2007).]

[This message has been edited by Ken Bird (edited 05-02-2007).]

Value Questions and Showcase forums

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Statements such as, "I'm thinking about selling this." are considered an offer to sell.

Starting from the bottom going up, the bow-tie logo which was introduced in 1928, next is the green/red logo which was introduced between 1948 to 1950, next is the blue/orange logo which was introduced in 1967, last picture is the front wall of my garage. Ken.

KEN, FYI...I SENT YOU THE BANNER DAYS AGO ON A REPLY TO YOUR EMAIL SENDING ME THE PICTURE OF MR. B/A.I ALSO RESENT YOU THE BANNER A FEW MINUTES AGO IN AN IMAGE SHACK LINK AND AN ATTACHMENT. ALSO MENTIONED HOW TO USE FULL SIZE IMAGES INSTEAD OF THUMBS LIKE YOU ASKED. HOPE YOU GET THEM.

Thanks Doc. I'm sorry, I didn't get your e-mail. I guess I should have gotten ahold of you earlier, I apologize. I'm thinking my wife may have deleted it before I checked the mail and she probably didn't recognize the name. I'll see if I can get things fixed up tonite as I'm just getting ready for work. See everyone later. Ken.

Good evening everyone. As you see, the banner is finally up, thanks again to Doc. I guess I will continue on some more history of B/A and then post a few more pictures. In 1908, B/A built Canada's third refinery on the eastern waterfront in Toronto. The main product they refined in the day was kerosene and the gasoline was being dumped into the swamp, because at the time, it was a useless by-product, yeesh! In 1909, B/A expanded towards the west into Quebec, a few years later in 1913, B/A expanded from 3 acres to 40 acres in Toronto and production went up to 32,000 barrels per month. It was in these years the stations started to show up and the visible gas pumps were becoming popular. In 1914 and 1915, Never-Nox and Peerless Premium gas and Autolene motor oils were introduced. In 1920, B/A bought out the Winnipeg Oil Co. and expanded into the prairie provinces. In 1922, Albert Ellsworth and H.W. Knight started the first company in Canada to manufacture a visible gas pump along with other sevice station equipment, and it was called The Clear Vision Pump Co. In 1924, B/A formed the Toronto Pipeline Co. to get into the U.S. as a producing company to gather oil from the Illinios oil field. In 1925, the first B/A owned gas station opened in Toronto on the corner of Bloor Street and Delaware Ave. Also set up the British American Oil Producing Co. in the U.S. to develop B/A oilfields in the southern U.S. In 1926, B/A had the second highest sales in Canada. In 1927, President S.R. Parson died and Albert Ellsworth took over as President. The Clearvision Pump Co. was renamed Service Station Equipment Co. which in turn was renamed International Metal Industries LTD. In 1928, B/A introduced the Bow-Tie logo. I think I will stop there for now and continue on into the '30's next time. As for now, I will post a few more pictures.Ken.

Here are some pictures of a few B/A stations. The bottom 2 are from Saskatoon Saskatchewan, the top one is from the cover of the B/A dealer magazine. This picture shows a great example of the B/A uniforms, as well as some of the signage.KLB.

Good evening everyone. Instead of more history tonight, I thought I would post some pictures. I'm going to post some pictures of the smaller cans from B/A. The first set is of outboard motor oil. I know of three other different types. Second set is of Frost cop Antifreeze. Third set is of Diesellube,and fourth set is of Auto. trans fluid.

Good evening everyone. I guess I will continue on with some more history, into the thirties. 1930, B/A made plans for a new refinery in Montreal to process crude oil from Texas. 1931, B/A started a fleet of 5 tanker ships, and will add to the fleet as years progress. 1933, Due to the depression, and the dirty thirties on the Prairies, B/A employees took a cut in wages, but no one was laid off. 1934, B/A built Canada's first Absorption Plant at Longview Alberta and also built a 50 mile pipeline from Cutbank Montana to the Coutts Alberta refinery. 1936, B/A had a total of 5,500 company and dealer owned service stations and 813 bulk plants. 1938, Construction was underway in Calgary Alberta for a new refinery. B/A subsidiaries in the U.S. extended down into Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. 1941, A refinery in Clarkson Ontario which was already under construction was being modified due to the war effort to produce Aviation fuels and oils. The tanker fleet was also used to haul fuel and oil to England. 1943, The Executive Vice President of the B/A subsidiary company in the U.S., became the President of B/A as Albert Ellsworth was in poor health, and stayed on as a Chairman, which he stayed as, until his death. 1944, Of the 840 B/A employees who went off to war, all of them were hired back and those who did not, were honored by B/A. B/A bought out Union Oil Co. Of Canada on the west coast and Vancouver Isle, and becoming a Company stretching from coast to coast which was Albert Ellsworth's dream. B/A also expanded in the U.S. with 375 wells at the Steamboat Butte and Pilot Butte oil fields near Casper Wyoming. B/A was named the exclusive distributor of Fisk Tires in Canada. 1946, Right after the war, Gulf Oil bought a 20% interest in B/A 1948, The new round logo, red,green and white was introduced. The bow-tie was used for a while with the round logo for a smooth transition. I think I will stop here for now and continue next time into the '50's. I will round up some more pictures in the meantime.

In these pictures, the top picture was taken at an auction sale a few years ago and this bulk plant and sign was sold. This was the typical style of building on the Prairies from the '20's into the '70's. The next picture is from the same sale and has a bow-tie, and a round style sign and beside it, the Gulf sign. The last sign was sent to me by Rod VanPelt, Rod has a neet little story behind it, Rod, if you read this please join in and tell us your story if you can. Ken.

In these series of pics, the top picture is a wiper blade cabinet, the second picture is a "hard to find" B/A clock, not perfect, has a crack that's been repaired and doesn't keep perfect time, but it's nice just to have one. The bottom picture is of a Bennett pump from Ralph Falvo's collection. My wife and I had the pleasure a few years ago to take a private tour of his collection, beautifull! And a very nice fellow as well. It was after that tour the wife thought that it was o.k. for me to collect this "junk". How am I doing so far everyone? Is it too boring? If anyone has any pictures or stories or history, please feel free to post. There must be a few signs, etc make their way south of the border because I've seen a few of them in posts this last week. Some of you Canadian people please post some pictures of your "stuff". Ken.

Ken,Great Job with the History and collectibles of B/A. I really am enjoying reading about this company that drilled for oil here in western Nebraska in the early 50s when oil was first discovered. Although some of these wells are still producers, their volume has dropped.This B/A lease porcelain sign, pictured above, was on my Grandpa's/Grandma's farm/ranch as B/A leased their land in the early 50s for drilling wells on their land. They found the first oil on their land and some of these wells are still producing. My cousin told me I should have the sign about 5 yrs. ago since I collected gas/oil stuff.Anxious to see more info and collectibles of B/A.Rod van Pelt

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[This message has been edited by danceswithpumps (edited 05-05-2007).]